Black out the numbers — so they're actually gone
Sending a bank statement to a landlord, a visa officer, HR? A black box drawn in most PDF editors is a decoration: the text underneath is still there, one select-all away. And the "free redaction" websites make you upload the very document you're trying to protect.
This tool re-renders every page as a flat image with your boxes burned in. The text objects are destroyed, not hidden — and it happens entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, ever.
…or drag it anywhere onto this box. Up to 100 MB.
Nothing is uploaded. Rendering, blacking out and rebuilding all happen on your machine — feel free to watch the network tab.
Opening the PDF locally — rendering pages, scanning the text layer for sensitive patterns. Your file has not left this browser.
Rasterizing…
Each page is being re-rendered as an image with your boxes burned in, then the result is re-opened and measured — all locally.
How it works
Drop the PDF
Pages render right in your browser. If the document has a text layer, local pattern matching suggests boxes over SSNs, account and routing numbers, phones and emails.
Draw the black boxes
Accept suggestions or drag boxes yourself — mouse or finger, as many per page as you need, undo anytime. You review every page; that part stays human.
Export destroys the text
Every page is re-rendered as a flat image with the boxes burned in, then the output is re-opened and verified: zero text objects, boxes measured black. $12 unlocks the clean file.
Straight answers
Why is this safer than drawing a black box in a PDF editor?
Because most black boxes are just a rectangle drawn ON TOP of the text. The characters are still in the file: select-all, copy-paste, or a text extractor pulls your SSN straight out — people have been burned by exactly this in court filings and public records. We don't cover text, we destroy it: the exported pages are flat images, re-rendered from pixels, with your boxes burned in. Then we re-open our own output and count the text objects to prove it — the number shown must be zero, or nothing is offered for download.
Is my document really not uploaded anywhere?
Really. Rendering, detection, blacking out and rebuilding are JavaScript running in your browser tab. The only network requests this page makes are to Stripe for payment — open your browser's developer tools and watch the network tab while you redact. Other redaction sites send your statement to their servers "for AI detection"; the whole reason this tool exists is that a document you're redacting is precisely the document that shouldn't travel.
How do the automatic suggestions work? Is that AI?
No AI, no cloud. It's plain pattern matching running locally: SSN shapes (with structural validity rules), 9-digit runs that pass the ABA routing checksum, 8–17 digit account runs, masked numbers like ****1234, US phone formats, emails. Suggestions are a head start, not a guarantee — you accept each one yourself, and reviewing the document remains your responsibility. Scanned PDFs have no text layer to search, so you'll be told plainly: draw the boxes manually.
What's the catch with rasterized output?
The output PDF is made of images, so text can no longer be selected, searched, or copied — by anyone, including you. That is the entire point, but it also means the file is somewhat larger than the original and screen readers can't read it. Page count and page dimensions are preserved exactly, and we print at ~150 DPI so it stays crisp on screen and in print.
What shows up on my card statement?
WEDGEWORKS* PDFREDACT — FileQuiet is made by Wedgeworks. $12, one time, per document. No subscription, no 24-hour pass, nothing recurring. The same file re-unlocks in this browser for free, forever — and the free watermarked sample lets you verify the full result before paying a cent.
Is this HIPAA / GLBA / court-rules compliant redaction?
We make no legal-compliance claims, and you should distrust tools that do. What we guarantee is technical and testable: the exported file contains zero text objects, the boxed regions are uniformly black pixels, and the document never left your machine. Whether a given redaction satisfies a specific regulation or court rule depends on what you chose to black out — that judgment is yours (or your lawyer's).
I paid but my browser lost the file (private mode). Am I stuck?
No. Drop the same PDF again, redraw your boxes, and the clean download unlocks without another charge — your payment is remembered by this browser. Because the file never touches our servers, we can't store it for you; the redaction simply runs again locally. If anything goes sideways, email support@shotfold.com with your Stripe receipt and we'll make it right.